Just got off the phone with one of my former athletes who’s now coaching.  She’s pulling her hair out!  Gossip is running rampant on her team.

A top killer of team development is gossip.  What is gossip?  It’s any third party conversation.  What’s that?  Basically it’s talking about someone when they’re not there – you’re talking about them instead of talking to them.

What’s wrong with a little gossip?  We all do it.  Celebrity gossip is a billion dollar industry!  Gossip distorts the facts, causes confusion, creates cliques and ultimately impacts team performance.

So what can you do as a coach?  First, refuse to participate.  When you hear an athlete gossiping, insists that they speak directly to the person they are talking about.  Have a “no gossip” rule on the team.  This means team members refuse to gossip or listen to gossip.

On high performance team, if someone hears something and wants to know more, they go directly to the source.  No one participates in any third party conversations – cause listening to gossip is just as harmful as speaking it!

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Everyone enjoys a witty teammate, but sarcasm often sabotages a team.

Witty wisecrackers may see their remarks as clever, but because the distinction between a joke and an insult can be nebulous, they can easily damage relationships with their one-liners.

Check out the where the word sarcasm comes from – “deriving from a Greek word meaning “to strip off the flesh,”.  I definitely recommend sharing this definition with your team.

Sarcasm is so prevalent in teen culture that I’m afraid that young athletes might be losing the ability to be sincere.

So what is a coach to do?

Since “you can’t do a don’t do”, just telling them to stop will not be very effective.   I suggest introducing them to a new habit – acknowledgement, it’s a primary fuel folks run on.  Start by modeling acknowledgement for your players.  It’s not manipulation. Acknowledgement is about letting people know you’re paying attention to them.

If you want your players to acknowledge each other, start by acknowledging them on a regular basis.  Make sure what you say is truthful and specific – do not “blow smoke” – that’s manipulation.  When giving acknowledgement, speak in the first person.  Talk to them, not about them!

NOTE:  Since we usually reserve our acknowledgement for big results, be sure to notice the small stuff as well.

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Fall is in the air and scholastic sports are in full swing.  Post competition comments are also flowing freely.  In the last few days I’ve heard the following comments from various coaches:

• “We had our chances there. We just didn’t execute well”
• “We just didn’t execute the way we wanted to”
• “We just didn’t finish off the drives, you know. We had one little thing go wrong. We have to get all eleven on the same page”
• “We tried to battle it out, We had a game plan all week. We just didn’t execute I guess”

So what you ask?  I finally figured out what irritated me about these lines – they sound like excuses.  They remind me of an athlete saying “my bad”.

Saying “We just didn’t execute” is letting yourself and your team off the hook.  The conversation needs to go deeper.  Why didn’t you execute?

Winning in competition is about executing skills at a high level, at high speed, at less than optimal conditions and under pressure.  It requires consistently making the right decision about when, where and how to execute the skill.

If you are coaching at the varsity or collegiate level, it’s doubtful your team suddenly lost their ability to execute (the how to’s).   If they still have the ability to execute, then what got in the way?  Tactical mismatch?  Mindset?  Mental toughness?

Rarely is a team sport athlete going to execute their skills with technical excellence – there are too many variables (opponents, weather, field conditions etc.)

If “poor execution” pops into your mind following a competition, challenge yourself to dig deeper.  Look beyond the scoreboard and stat sheet.  What else was going on?  Why was this game plan beyond their ability to execute on this day?

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